Pastor Maldonado admits it "is a big frustration" to experience such inconsistency over the past three years at Williams.

Following a difficult debut season when the team was well off the pace and he scored just one point, Maldonado won last year's Spanish Grand Prix as Williams was often challenging for a place in the top ten. Having scored 45 points last year, Maldonado again has just a solitary point to his name this season and he admitted the fluctuations in competitiveness is tough.

"For sure it's frustrating," Maldonado said. "To win a race last year - a couple of months ago - and this year to be fighting to even make it in to Q2 for sure is a big frustration. But we never back off, we are pushing very hard as a team, I am trying to do my best … but still we need to do some big changes in terms of performance in the car.

"Aero-wise we need to improve and soon we will improve with some new aero packages. We are still pushing with this year's car and maybe we can have maybe not the car to win all the races but have the car to put us in a good position to fight for points."

However, Maldonado said he was confident that Williams has the strength to recover from its poor season in time for next year.

"The only problem we have is maybe the most important which is the car, but if we work hard and put everything together I think we can solve the problems. We have a lot of experience, we have great people, a great factory as well. I think we have all the tools to make a strong car."

The International Rugby Board (IRB) have stripped Australia of the right to host a round of the World Sevens Series, scheduled for Brisbane on 16-17 February, after the Australian government's refusal to provide visas for the squad from Fiji